GOP smells blood

Republicans smell blood — their challenge now is to figure out where it’s coming from.

Do they exact victory in their never-ending war against President Barack Obama by methodically peeling back the layers on the mess of scandals suddenly engulfing his presidency?

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Or do concentrate on the economy? Or can they do both effectively?

The tricky GOP balancing act began in earnest Wednesday morning, when Republican leaders stood in front of a backdrop that said “Solutions for American Jobs,” talked about their latest quixotic attempt to repeal Obamacare, building the Keystone XL pipeline. Moments later, they insisted that someone in the Internal Revenue Service should go to prison for unfairly targeting the tax status of conservative groups.

For now, the scandal mix — which includes Benghazi, the IRS investigating conservative groups, and the Justice Department seizing reporters phone records — is almost too good for Republicans to resist.

“My question isn’t about who is going to resign, my questions is who’s going to jail over this scandal,” Boehner said at a news conference after a closed meeting of Republicans.

Republicans suddenly have a glut of issues on which they they can pummel the Obama administration. The gift of three different scandals suddenly gaining steam over the course of one week abruptly seems to give the House GOP an agenda of sorts, something it has been sorely lacking over the course of this year. It will also work to rile the GOP base in advance of the 2014 midterms.

But House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his lieutenants, including hard-charging House Oversight and Government Reform Chair Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), must also be careful not to overreach.

The challenge is to not focus too intently on scandal, and find a coherent and cohesive narrative that they can sell about the Obama administration that voters will buy.

That is why Boehner (R-Ohio) whipped a pocket card out of his jacket Wednesday morning about his party’s jobs agenda, while at the same time walloping Obama on his scandal-plagued administration. Boehner’s test over the next few months is to find a cohesive message that melds oversight and job-creation, aides say.

Add to that, Republicans are meeting Wednesday evening to craft a strategy to raise the debt ceiling, which will be a poisonous battle that aides say will come in November.